AL Championship Series - Astros lead 3-2

Home, sweet home?

Home away from home

In a series where every game has been won by the visitor, is returning home a good thing?

I would argue yes, as the Astros need to win just one of two to take the series.

I’m more worried about the fragility of Framber Valdez’s psyche. There were some ridiculous ball/strike calls Friday, so who knows how Framber handles the inevitable bad calls that come with an MLB game.

Add to that the subtext of Bryan Abreu’s possible unavailability for the remainder of the series and the next two games potentially dicey.

Perhaps an appeal will lead to a reduction to a one-game suspension.

Pitching Matchups

Updated to include game 2 results.

Bullpen Usage

The bullpen is still in good shape, assuming Abreu is available, with the off day, but it could get dicey if it goes to game 7.

ALCS Batting

Astros batting for the ALCS to date.

ALCS Pitching

Astros pitching for the ALCS to date.

May not mean anything notes of the day

Jeremy Pena has played well in the field, but is slashing .167/.211/.167 for the ALCS, with a wRC+ of 5.

Bryan Abreu has pitched in 4 of 5 ALCS games.

Yordan Alvarez has a wRC+ of 205 in the ALCS.

Jose Abreu has the Astros only stolen base of the ALCS.

Jose Altuve’s home run dropped the Ranger’s win probability from 72.2% to 17.1%.

Jose Altuve’s at-bat in the 9th inning had a Leverage Index of 4.42 (1.0 is average).

Thanks for reading!